Barack Obama toasts David Cameron ‘strength’ at White House dinner

Barack Obama has paid tribute to David Cameron and his wife Samantha’s ‘strength’ as parents after they lost their disabled son Ivan, aged six, in 2009.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle welcome David Cameron and his wife Samantha to the White House (Picture: Reuters)

At a star-studded dinner at the White House the US president praised the prime minister’s ‘character’ and ‘commitment to human dignity’.

‘I’ve seen his resolve, his determination to get the job done,’ President Obama told guests including actors George Clooney and Damian Lewis, as well as golfer Rory McIlroy.

‘I will say something else, David: all of us have seen how you as a parent along with Samantha have shown a measure of strength that few of us will ever know,’ the president continued.

Barack Obama proposes a toast to the Camerons (Picture: EPA)

‘Tonight I thank you for bringing that same strength and solidarity to our partnership.’

Mr Cameron responded by saying he felt the special relationship ‘in his bones’, praising President Obama’s ‘strength, moral authority and wisdom’, especially with reference to missions to kill Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan and to support an uprising against Muammar al-Gaddafi in Libya.

‘Let us all agree, the world is better off without Bin Laden but the world is better off without Gaddafi too,’ Mr Cameron said, adding the president had ‘pressed the reset button’ on moral authority in the world.

A host of other stars were at the black tie event in a South Lawn marquee, including American Vogue editor Anna Wintour, British actors Carey Mulligan, Idris Elba, Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern, as well as film mogul Harvey Weinstein, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and former Olympian Denise Lewis, while music was provided by Mumford & Sons and John Legend.

Referring to a basketball game the two men attended on the first night of his three-day visit to the US, Mr Cameron added: ‘We have to have a guys’ night out because so often we find we are completely overshadowed by our beautiful wives.’

George Clooney, Michelle Obama and David Cameron listen to the US president’s speech (Picture: PA)

Today Mr Cameron is due to visit Ground Zero as well as New York University, City Hall and a charter school seen as a model for free schools in the UK.

President Obama and Mr Cameron held formal talks yesterday where they reaffirmed a commitment to start phasing security to Afghan forces by 2013 ahead of an overall foreign troop withdrawal the following year.

The two leaders also discussed the situation in Syria and Iran’s nuclear programme, while Mr Cameron said he had raised the two countries’ extradition treaty with the president after a series of high-profile controversial cases.